Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 8120Location: United States of New England

linanil wrote:

Yeah, I think our beagle needs internal anal gland expressing. You should've seen his face when I was digging around trying to 'get it'. Also, we tested it outside as there was no way I'd do it inside.

beagles! our hound mix that we think is a beagle is the one with the butt issues.maybe he needs internal expression and that's why my husband couldnt do it despite reading and youtube videos.either that or he just didnt know wht he was doing

Yeah, I think our beagle needs internal anal gland expressing. You should've seen his face when I was digging around trying to 'get it'. Also, we tested it outside as there was no way I'd do it inside.

beagles! our hound mix that we think is a beagle is the one with the butt issues.maybe he needs internal expression and that's why my husband couldnt do it despite reading and youtube videos.either that or he just didnt know wht he was doing

I wouldn't mess about with it too much. See if you vet clinic will do it as a drop in service (as in, without an appt with a vet).

Yeah, I think our beagle needs internal anal gland expressing. You should've seen his face when I was digging around trying to 'get it'. Also, we tested it outside as there was no way I'd do it inside.

beagles! our hound mix that we think is a beagle is the one with the butt issues.maybe he needs internal expression and that's why my husband couldnt do it despite reading and youtube videos.either that or he just didnt know wht he was doing

I wouldn't mess about with it too much. See if you vet clinic will do it as a drop in service (as in, without an appt with a vet).

Yeah, we gave it one try for a few minutes and gave up. That is why in the future, we'll go to the vet.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

Wow I almost always leave my hotel room looking just like how I found it, minus the unmade but not terribly so bed. I hang all the towels up, all my garbage is in bins and if I drank in the room I put the beer bottles into the case next to the garbage. So I've never tipped in a hotel room, except for the one time I threw up everywhere, and left like $30 cause I felt terrible about that. There were a few times my card was billed from the hotel (I think they were all Hiltons) for leaving the room messy and I called and ended up screaming at someone on the phone. They said that the notes said there were beer bottles in the room, and since I put them back in the box neatly I was like what the hhfdfhdfhdfh!!!!!!! I think that's totally put me off to tipping in hotels because what is the point of doing that when and leaving the room tidy when you get charged for dirt and damages that didn't happen? I got everything removed, but still.

Restaurants I usually do somewhere between 15 and 20%, it depends on how much cash I have and if I make a math mistake. I've very rarely had such bad service that I wouldn't tip, at that point if it's too bad to tip it's too bad to pay the full check. I'll tip over 20% if I get like free drinks and food.

I don't own a pet, it never would have occured to me to tip dog groomers though.

Taxi's I usually do $1. I don't take them for myself, it's for work and it's reimbursable, so the client ends up paying for it. If I leave more than that then a lot of them don't want to pay it, so........ However taxi drivers are terrible and lots of times I don't feel like leaving the speeding red light running cutting everyone off jerk that is putting my life at risk extra money. I don't really know their pay situation, but if I am fearing for my life and yelling at them to do the speed limit, fork that. I once got out of a cab without paying anything because the guy reading and driving, I didn't wait to get to where I was going either. If they obey traffic laws then I tip them.

Alaina I had never heard of getting an extra charge for a messy room until just recently. Right before Xmas I was in Malaysia and at checkout the hotel wanted 100 ringgit because I got makeup on the towels. I was so shocked as I used to live in hotels about 10 years ago (using towels with abandon! Whee!) and that never, ever happened. I think it's a recent idea that came out in the industry, much like the 'save water and reuse your towels' cards that are really about saving the hotel money, not saving the environment. At any rate I'm glad you got the charge removed. That money would not have gone to the housekeeper. Tips are different because they actually do go to housekeeping.

Every time we travel in the US we're worried about not tipping correctly. I always feel most awkward with room service, it always feels weird, like, when/how do I slip you cash!

We've been tipping 20% in restaurants & $3-$5 a night for housekeeping (with a note so they know it's a tip) so I don't think we're screwing it up! We've probably only been tipping taxi drivers 10% though, is that too little? What about bar tenders? I think I read that you should tip $1 or $2 for a beer and $2 or $3 for a mixed drink, does that sound right?

Also, what about tattoo artists? In the UK I usually give an extra £20 or £30 for a £250/£300 session which I'm realising is only around 10%. Would that be horribly offensive in the US?

I give tattoo artists a lot if I'm happy with the tattoo. I figure I've already paid so much, and it's such an intimate thing to have someone put permanent ink on your body, so I don't want to spend the rest of my life looking at my tattoo and wondering if I should have tipped more. I think I do about 20%, and this is in Canada, which is probably a little bit more generous than the standard in the US, but maybe not. I've never had anything equivalent to a £300 session though!

We don't go to bars and I'm not a tattoo person but when I got my ears pierced, I think I tipped 20%? The person was really friendly and helpful and discussed different sizes and what not. I wasn't sure what I wanted so it definitely took the person's time to discuss options.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

Vijita, you needn't tip your florist as high as 20% unless she's working for someone else. Granted, if you can afford the 20%, you should because it sounds like she's really made you happy...but the way it usually works for wedding vendors: if they own their own business, a tip isn't expected because they can set their prices at whatever they want to be making/whatever they need to cover rent. A good example would be our wedding photographer: he's been doing this for twenty years so he's acquired all the really expensive equipment; he doesn't have a boss who's taking a cut of what we're paying him and he works out of his home. You can always include tips with the thank-you notes to your vendors but if it's someone for whom a tip isn't required, any amount is going to be appreciated.

Good points, thanks! She and her sister own their own shop. I just worry about them folding like all other small indie businesses doing it the right way around these parts! But at the same time, myself and my future spouse work for a small indie business so I can't really toss around my money. I'll tip whatever I can manage at the time and just make sure to thank her accordingly.

We didn't tip our florist but we also worked with the owner (and actually they did screw some things up but I digress... it wasn't a big deal). I think we tipped the minister though because he did an awesome job at really doing a non-religious ceremony but it felt somewhat traditional which is what I wanted.

_________________You are all a disgrace to vegans. Go f*ck yourselves, especially linanil.

As far as tipping goes, I'm bummed when someone gushes over how much they love a groom but doesn't bother tipping. That said, I think only about a third of my customers tip me at all, so it's not expected, but it's nice!

I know! I will spend so much time on clients and give them really warm and (what I hope is) excellent service. We do stuff like give free thirty minute tours of our property, and no one ever thinks to tip even though we are stretching our staff so far in order to always be focussed on the customers. Our guests almost always leave happy, but still, because we are a cidery with a small amount of food offerings (though set up like a restaurant), so many people will toss a $1 bill in our tip jar after we've given them three hours of service (food & drinks) and so so so much attention.

I don't know what "usual and customary" would be in the US for tattoos. My two larger pieces (2-2.5 hours each) I tipped 25%. My artist rounded down her hours and didn't include the time she spent working on the art either, so I feel like she gave me a really good deal.

For hotels, I usually tip as I'm checking out--is that wrong? Like when I leave the room for good I leave the tip in there.

I've heard for salons, if it's the owner then you don't need to tip.

_________________I would eat Dr. Cow pocket cheese in a second. I would eat it if you hid it under your hat, or in your backpack, but not if it was in your shoe. That's where I draw the line. -allularpunk

You should definitely, definitely, definitely tip in hotel rooms. Also, strip your sheets if you can, and collect towels in one place. Housekeeping is backbreaking labor that is way underpaid.

When I was young, we stayed in hotels a lot because my parents were divorced and my dad took us on vacation when we were with him. One of my sisters once left a housekeeper a tip and a letter asking some kid-style nosy questions. She got back a thank you letter with some information about where the housekeeper was from and what she liked to do, etc. It was really interesting and my sister kept that letter for a long time.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

I have only ever tipped housekeeping staff when I've left for good. Of course, I usually have the do no disturb sign up the whole time because I don't really like to have my room tidied every day (maybe once, part way through a longer stay if the wastebasket is getting full or there weren't plenty of towels in the room.) As an aside, my hotel in Austin last week was adjacent to/affiliated with the UT campus so the do not disturb sign read Studying on side and "Studying" on the other. We lol'd.

You should definitely, definitely, definitely tip in hotel rooms. Also, strip your sheets if you can, and collect towels in one place. Housekeeping is backbreaking labor that is way underpaid.

When I was young, we stayed in hotels a lot because my parents were divorced and my dad took us on vacation when we were with him. One of my sisters once left a housekeeper a tip and a letter asking some kid-style nosy questions. She got back a thank you letter with some information about where the housekeeper was from and what she liked to do, etc. It was really interesting and my sister kept that letter for a long time.

It's not that I refuse to tip housekeepers, I didn't know this was a thing one does! We stayed at hotels all the time when I was a kid and I'm sure my parents never did, and that's where I learned to be a gracious guest. I suppose I'll start.

I've never tipped housekeeping staff for stays under 3 nights. 3 nights or more then we do but that only happens... close to never.

No tattoos. And I haven't pierced my ears since I was 13 or so and I doubt they got tipped for that. I would never think to tip in that situation - pretty sure I got it done at one of those teenie bopper jewellery stores.